Council recognises that replacing old pipes with PVC have seen water pipe breaks drop by half

A local council in the US has recently reported that replacing city water lines with PVC pipes has cut the number of pipe breaks in half – with pipe breaks already down 90% in 2014 over same time 2013.

An aggressive campaign in Laramie, Wyoming to replace old water pipes, which were mostly made of cast or ductile iron, with PVC pipes began about five years ago. Each time a pipe break would occur with older pipe systems, the estimate to repair was $6,000 each with the locals often losing water for over a day.

The City Utility Manager, Carl VanZee said the city replacement project chose PVC pipes because they are more resilient and have longer service use.

“Nobody knows how long the pipes will last,” VanZee said. “Estimates vary between 75 and 500 years, but it’s impossible to know for sure because the pipes haven’t existed long enough to start failing.”

Corrosion is the number one reason for water pipe breaks. However unlike metal piping, PVC pipes won't rust or corrode over time because they do not react with air and water the way metal does, which results in a significantly longer lifetime of the pipe. PVC pipe is a proven and extremely durable alternative to traditional corrosion prone pipe materials.